


A Close Call

by Matcha_tea_n_cuddles



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Calamity's Advent Zine, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M, no beta we die like Glenn, or.. not really anyway, the violence isn't too graphic i don't think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:27:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25690552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Matcha_tea_n_cuddles/pseuds/Matcha_tea_n_cuddles
Summary: Claude and Annette are on their way home from Claude's third speech as the Almyran king, and the unthinkable happens.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Claude von Riegan
Kudos: 3
Collections: Calamity's Advent





	A Close Call

**Author's Note:**

> This is my piece for the Calamity's Advent zine run by @InvincibleZine on twitter! Be sure to get the full zine if you liked this story!

It was a bright and serene evening in Almyra; you could tell from the hues of pink and yellow from the sunset, barely a cloud in sight. There were never very many trees, but the ones that were there were towering, tall and green. Birdsong echoed through the leaves and branches, settling in Claude and Annette’s ears.

“The birdsong sure is pretty tonight, don’t you think Claude?” Annette asked, trying to make small talk.

Claude stared ahead at the horizon, looking pensive and not heeding her attempt.

_He must be thinking about something,_ she thought. She decided not to pry for now, but she would likely say something when they got back to the castle. In the meantime, Annette etched this memory into her head, as she was never out of the castle much since moving here. Claude had a meeting with some of the Almyran soldiers, asking them to cease their attacks on Fódlan’s Locket in an attempt to make peace.

Looking back on the event, Annette wasn’t all that used to seeing Claude in a leadership position. Sure, there were the war councils when it was still going on, but the Professor was usually the one leading those. She remembered that most of the people who attended the speech weren’t there because they wanted to be, but rather because they had to be. At the end of it all, most of the Almyrans seemed convinced that attacking Fódlan’s locket was not the right thing to do. 

“True power comes from within ourselves,” Claude had said, “and from the bonds of friendship. I believe that we can lead Fódlan and Almyra to a future where you will be able to freely cross the border and not be judged or attacked for it.”

Annette often daydreamed about Claude’s speeches, ever since he made his first one. Well, this was only the third, but nevertheless, they usually occupied her thoughts. She admired Claude’s ability to speak publicly and not falter when his audience wasn’t receptive to his voice.

“Claude?” she called.

“Annie?” he called back.

Annette made a pouty face and placed her head on Claude’s shoulder. “When do you think we’ll get back home?”

“Just a little while longer, sweet pea. Provided nothing happens.”

His words gave Annette a chill, and suddenly she felt like she was being watched. She decided to ignore it for now, passing it off as ‘probably nothing.’

She looked down to the ground below, seeing the rustle of the trees in the light wind and the clear plains with light wispy grass, and silently wondered if her suspicion would be proven correct.

Annette took her head off Claude’s shoulder and wildly shook it, trying to get the unwavering thoughts out and failing, whipping Claude’s face in the process.

“Hey! What was that for?” he asked jokingly.

Her face held a worried look.

“I... feel like someone’s watching us.” she replied, trying to keep her voice steady.

Annette watched her lover’s face turn pensive once more and look forward toward the sunset.

“I’ve been feeling that for a little while.” Claude answered after a short pause.

A light tension started building up in the air from Claude and Annette’s combined worry and pensiveness, stacking on top of one another so fast that Annette started to feel nausea building up too. She looked away from Claude and towards the ground once more.

And that’s when she saw a flurry of arrows flying fast towards their wyvern’s wings, puncturing them and drawing blood.

“Stay calm, Annette, we’ll be okay, I promise.” Claude said, raising his voice to be heard over the suddenly wild wind.

“Are you sure? There’s probably someone after us! But we can’t run away from poor Blanca...” she said, tears starting to stream down her face for the white wyvern that had served Claude through the war, and eventually out of worry for their own lives.

They both let out an ‘oof!’ at the hard landing in the plains, letting out deep breaths before watching a single Almyran dressed black as the night shoot three daggers from their hiding place in one of the trees, all flying towards Annette at a rapid pace. She froze and tightly shut her eyes, knowing that it was the little Fódlan mage’s time to die.

“ _Annette, no!”_ Claude pushed her out of the way in time for all three daggers to hit him one by one. One in his left shoulder, one in his chest, and the other close to his stomach. He fell back with a _thud,_ landing on one of Blanca’s bloody wings.

“ _Claude!”_ Annette cried as she knelt beside him, desperately looking to see if she had packed any healing tomes.

Annette’s bag was deeper than it looked, and held a lot. She tried to hold her attention between looking for her recover tome and making sure Claude didn’t bleed out. He looked paler by the second, his injuries gushing out blood everywhere, on his clothes, hers, the wyvern’s and on the ground. It flowed like a river and Annette was starting to wonder if she had packed her tome at all.

“ _Go on... without me Annette... you can do this...”_ Claude uttered, resigning himself to his fate as he started to cough up more and more blood.

“No Claude, you can’t give up! Just let me find my tome, it’s here somewhere, I promise! I would never have left home without it!” Annette cried more. She was in too much of a panic and her tears started to obstruct her vision.

“ _Come on, come on recover tome, I know you’re in there!”_ she screamed and cried. She couldn’t find it no matter how hard she looked. Her bloodshot eyes led her to Claude, who had started bleeding out of his eyes and mouth. He coughed some more, and his breathing got more labored. Annette started to throw books left and right so she could find her recover tome through all this _rubbish._ She hadn’t realized how much she packed until it came to finding one single thing in a panic.

_Come on, Goddess, it can’t be that much to ask, please let me be able to find my tome and heal Claude._ Please! _I don’t think I could survive without him for very long. Especially here,_ Annette let out a desperate prayer to the goddess, hoping it would help her.

Everything in her bag was strewn out around the couple, until one thing remained in the bag.

... _The recover tome._

The green tome seemed to glow from inside the bag once she had found it. She cried in relief for a moment, before blinking and glancing at Claude, realizing that he probably passed out from blood loss. _He doesn’t have much time left,_ she thought frantically, pulling out the daggers, ripping his shirt open, and siphoning all the magic she could muster from the tome before holding her hands over his wounds and transferring the magic into Claude’s unmoving body.

Once Annette had run out of magic, she saw the bloody wounds start to close up. She watched Claude’s face, and saw nothing. She wondered if she had been too late, seeing all the blood on the ground and fighting the urge to vomit.

After what felt like an eternity, Claude’s eyes fluttered open.

He weakly held his hand out toward Annette.

“ _Annie...? What... happened?”_ Claude asked in a hoarse whisper.

Annette started crying out of relief. _Claude was alive! Oh thank the goddess!_

“Claude!” she wailed and hugged him so hard he was barely able to breathe. “Oh goddess, you’re back!” her cries were muffled by his chest.

“Hold on there tiger,” he says with a little more of his voice back, “It still hurts, you know.”

“Oh, sorry!” the little mage pulled back frantically, “I was just so relieved... I started thinking about what I would do if you had... well... _died!”_ a new stream of tears flowed down her face. She rubbed her eyes in a futile attempt to stop the salty droplets.

“I’m sorry... for not— _hic--_ healing you sooner...” she cried and hiccupped.

Claude gathered the strength to sit up, and wrapped his arms around her.

“ _Shh... It’s okay, princess...”_ he rested his head on her shoulder and gently rubbed circles on her back.

She hugged him back and cried some more.

“You did just fine.” he said. “They were close, but they can’t beat the two of us.”

Except for the occasional sniffle, the air was silent. Claude and Annette managed to heal Blanca’s wounds and travel home once they were able to calm down, but not without the little mage sentencing Claude to bedrest for the next few weeks... or months.


End file.
